mandigirl

I was just kind of ... meh with the finals. Something about the format this season, without the structure of the division match ups, just didn't do it for me. I truly hated the 'studio' setting for the initial rounds. I didn't think the contenders in the rounds were well-paired or fairly paired. There were definitely some more exciting dance groups that should have made it further. Also thought Jake and Chau should have made it through to the finals instead of the Latin ballroom pair. Nothing against them-- they were likeable. Just thought Jake and Chau had a super strong semi-final routine. I was OK with MD3 winning. They are strong dancers. They've been dancing together for a long time and it shows. I would have preferred Oxygen. I thought Oxygen's semifinal routine was RIDICULOUS. So so good. They may have been one of the cleanest groups ever on the series, period. The small print is that the $1M prize is an annuity, not a lump sum. So cheap NBC. Most people take less now so they can get a lump sum instead of the annuity. So MD3 probably won't get $1M, but still likely a very decent pay day. Agreed. I really liked Luca and Allesandra. Their qualifier routine was one of my favorites.

It was so obvious that they had already chosen who they wanted to go through. In past seasons it was not so in your face, but this year they basically grouped the teams out ahead of time so that they would know who was going to the finals. How exactly were the teams grouped? They didn't even bother to fake an explanation on that! I really did not like that the teams did not go up against groups in their own divisions. What's the point of the divisions? This season was so strange. I hope they return to the original format next year. I like that salsa couple, but I thought their routine was super shaky. I didn't think they were going through, and they ended up with the highest score?? The scores had nothing to do with their performance, once again it seemed that it was pre-determined. I keep comparing them to Karen y Ricardo who were flawless and didn't make it past semifinals if I remember correctly. I thought The Young Crew and Geometrie should have advanced. Super bummed about GRVMNT, J Lo was right-- they danced as well as they could with the lackluster choreography in their routine. That group proved that they can handle whatever choreography is tossed at them, hope they come back with updated routines next year.

No surprise, Bailey and Kida easily won their duel. I thought it was a good routine, they are both clearly very talented. I was relieved The Young Cast went forward but super bummed that Chibi Unity did not. They had one of the strongest routines of the duel round. I didn't expect it, but Reagan's routine was my favorite of the night. Great song choice and her emotion was genuine. The new 'scoring' method continues to grate. Depending on how the votes go, it makes one of the judge's decisions moot. Even if the scoring is more or less rigged, if the decisions of each of the judges doesn't matter, then why the heck are they on there!

ITA- I thought both of those groups should have made it. So far, with the exception of 305, I thought the other two 'cut' teams should have gone through but because of who they were paired with, they lost. Absolutely nothing against Savannah who is freaking adorable, but I would have preferred The Young Cast or the Japanese team to go forward. Now one of them will get cut. Very pleased about GRVMNT. That routine was awesome. Love that little kid they put up front, what a charismatic dancer. That duel was super close and once again, I thought both groups should have gone to the semifinals.

Nope. I first saw Bryan when he was doing his own renovation show and thought he was competent and delightful. Then they did a show on renovating their house and we meet Sarah. She was the exact same way, constantly changing her mind, it had to be her way, costs and practicality be damned. I see she hasn't changed. Bryan is Definitely more practical than Sarah, lol-- but he's also more unlikable to me. I find his tone with her to be off-putting. And his temper tantrum last episode was not a good look. I've seen other resorts with the whole modern 'all white' look, and many hotels have all white linens. If they use commercial grade furniture and fabrics they should be ok hopefully. I'm liking the design generally. ITA that they should have done wood-look tile. I think they are going to figure that out as well... Is Sarah a professional designer, does this for a living, has her own clients etc.? Or is she one of those (usually rich) people who feels they have an eye for interior design? No disrespect if she is the latter-- I've seen many people pull out great design. She's prob a bit 'spoiled' because Bryan is free labor. If she got charged for each change order? She'd figure it out real quick.

Gotta agree with LitteIggy, Marco getting the new grounds equipment may have been my favorite moment of the show so far. I was surprised and pleased that Bryan and Sarah expressed what looked to be genuine warmth and gratitude towards the people on the island, including those working for them. I really wish they showed more of Sarah's design process for decorating the hotel. That would have been cool. Also would like to see more of the property managers. Their whole process would be interesting as well. If they get another season (they may!), or HGTV does another show with a similar idea, I would like to see a whole lot less bickering, and a whole lot more of the inner workings of getting a resort up and running. ITA. Some things may sound good, but I think that swaying rattan hat that they turned into a light would get super annoying after awhile. I would be interested to know if it is still there.

I think some are staged, but a lot of the arguing feels organic to me. When Bryan was grilling Sarah about her plans for the design of the back of the bar (Seriously, their lack of communication is crazy. HOW does he not have at least some idea of the plans already??), there was a tremor in Sarah's voice. She really was nervous. When she 'angers' Bryan, he can be quite vicious in his tone with her. I have absolutely no previous exposure to Bryan, but I find him thoroughly unlikeable. He's so condescending, dismissive and rude to his wife. She's not perfect either for sure, but he's the worse offender IMO. He's a dictator. He makes changes all the time, but when Sarah makes changes, he either ignores them, or vocally bitches about it. I hate how Sarah will be talking about a design decision, and then he asks one of the workers what they think. Not because the workers don't or shouldn't have an opinion, but the way he does it so undermining. I hope he watches the show and realizes how poorly he acts.

I'm really not loving how subjective this season is with no real scoring, just the judges pointing to the person they prefer. There is psychological pressure for the judges to 'go with the majority' in a way that wasn't there when each judge privately put in scores based on specific criteria. Not a fan at all. UPeepz routine was gold so they should have won, but I still loved the Rise and was so bummed that they didn't go forward. I liked that bleached blond kid, a fantastic dancer and charismatic. I hope we see him again. His story last season about dancing on the show to get his absentee dad's attention just shredded my heart. Emma and Styles should have gone forward. Period. For me, they should have won their duel. The judges should have never paired Geometrie and Oxygen in a duel-- they both are some of the strongest teams and both should have gone forward against other acts in the duel round. I do think the Alesandra tango pair should have gone forward too, they were fantastic. So far, the judges have allowed some subpar acts into the semifinal. They do this every year for dramatic effect, and it just sucks because the dancers they send home deserve better.

About halfway through this episode, it actually started holding my attention. So much of this season has felt like treading water. At least some of the plot points are starting to come together. Nice to see Boston and there were a couple of truly lol lines of dialog in the episode. If Patterson really is gone, I can say goodbye to this show without a second thought because that truly would crap all over the show I've loved and watched since the pilot. If she's not, we have some Patterson-y goodness to look forward to! She's going to save the team. This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard! A secret twin-- this show can get soap opera-ish, but that's taking it too far! I can't remember-- weren't Remy and Roman biological siblings? Or was it that Shepard just adopted them both? One person we KNOW is still out there that I'm thinking we will see eventually is Jane's daughter. Never liked that character, so not looking forward to it, but I'm expecting that she's part of the resistance too.

I've always liked MEM. But this almost exact scene was done on another show (not with ZIP, some other dangerous substance)-- 24 maybe? Whatever show it was, the scene in this episode lost impact because of that. The 'Put him somewhere nice.' had so much emotion to it though. I wondered this as well. Madeline said Greg was 'her oldest', implying she has other kids. And Greg was on his way to another job when he stopped in NYC. So people are going to notice him missing. Also, Jane flooded her body with Zip which is why she lost her memories for so long. With a smaller dose, like the one Madeline gave Greg, Roman regained his memories in a couple months, maybe even weeks. They still need her to link Madeline to the terrorist organization. Very underwhelmed to see Keaton. Never liked him although they tried redo his character to make him more likeable. Don't give up hope-- Keaton was speaking to someone else on the phone. So Allie, Keaton and atleast one other person have been working together. I'm hopeful for a couple of reasons-- Roman was a far more likely person to appear in Kurt's dream than Oscar, so maybe they are waiting for the big reveal? Also, Madeline killed Blake so makes sense Roman would want revenge. Or... maybe the actor just isn't available, lol.

I didn't particularly care for this episode, but it was better than expected from what I had seen in the previews. It felt very much like the filler episode it was. Lol'd when Ice cream called Rich 'the Ice Cream of the Americas'! Also, Paul Rudd would be excellent casting for Ice Cream in the soon-to-be movie. ITA. Right in the middle of a mission, Jane says 'You know Kurt how I said you were a good man like a day ago? Maybe I was wrong and you're actually just killer.' Like that wasn't something that Kurt nearly had a melt down over? What kind of person, let alone what kind of wife would say that in the middle of a dangerous mission? Jane and Weller continue to have zero romantic chemistry. I think it is more glaring this season because they are supposed to be each other's 'rock' until they get back home. Despite their perfunctory kisses and hugs, their chemistry feels like nothing more than team members to me.

Again, this endangerment argument would be much much stronger if the Triplet were actually laying low and not, you know, doing random crap to get themselves exposed on. the. regular. just for farts and giggles. There's Rosa, Flint (at an alien conspiracy festival no less! To quote one of my favorite comedies 'It's almost like you want to die!') and Isobel chugging nail polish remover from the bottle in a middle of a crowded bar. Those are just off the top of my head! They do reckless, highly visible stuff to draw attention to themselves that has zero beneficial value. So life-saving research being the hill Max suddenly decides to dig his heels in on is distasteful. Do they have to agree? No. But if their reason is a risk of exposure, Liz's back alley experiments don't hold a candle to the s%& they've done, lol. But I guess mileage will vary on this one. Max's sanctimonious bs is underscored by how he made sure to save the vials of that orange serum he's so fond of ( 1. Liz created that through her research btw and 2. the serum is probably one of the most dangerous things to the Triplet in that entire lab, so what was his drivel about shutting down the lab to 'protect his family'?) but then torched all the other research and materials that could have helped, you know, any one else. How the eff is that oK?? Jokes on him, because the gross majority of Liz's research so far helped and protected the aliens, most recently when she was able to whip up an alien bio-agent for the bomb at the fair so that Max et co wouldn't be branded as terrorists. But no biggie. Next time he needs something like that, hope they can whip that up with whatever's at the local CVS. IRL, makes sense. In the world of the show, Liz cured a rare disease with little more than some basic lab equipment and a couple of late nights. So in the show construct, curing world disease given decent resources and time, was much more than a 'limited possibility'.

So many points well taken, and not to be contrary, but technically speaking, Steph 'abandoned' that sample Liz used to do her research. IRL, that sample would have been useless, but not in Roswell! Also, we have no idea what Liz did or did not tell Steph about the alien treatment because that scene was off-screen inexplicably. I don't disagree with this or any of the other excellent posts about Liz's bioethics. Non-consensual medical testing is wrong. I'm pissed because Liz is a Latina STEM genius- what message are the writers trying to make exactly? Also, this is what doesn't sit well with me-- -- People here have raised lack of consent and violation of trust, but that is not the objection that Max raised. His stated objection was Liz 'putting them in danger' with her research. He even destroyed Noah's samples which had nothing to do with him. Liz doesn't get carte blanche, but Max's actions do make his objections based on 'endangerment' hypocritical at best if not straight up laughable. -- If we're going to go into ethics, why the heck doesn't Max consent for goodness sake? If someone said that your fingernail clippings could cure heart disease, saving millions, potentially billions, is it ethical for you to just say 'Nah.' No blow back to you, nothing invasive. You don't even let them try? I have a problem with Max and the rest of the Triplet using Liz and her research to cover and save their asses, but the second she wants to use that same research to save other lives, 'it's too dangerous', burn your lab to the ground. There's something off about that to me.

This is what has struck me about this show as well. Bryan is harsh and his wife comes off as controlled and naive. I suspect that its just for the cameras, but this "drama" is not a selling point, it makes me not want to watch the show. They seem to be designing and constructing on the fly which makes no sense, so I hope that it's just for the cameras too. I would have thought that most if not all of the basic design decisions would have been worked out before they left Canada. Bryan micromanaging his wife is distasteful, but his wife trying to make major layout changes without any construction input is just bizarre and a waste of time. It may be difficult for some people to appreciate the racial dynamics created in a post-colonized region, but the imbalances and legacies that creates are entrenched and very very real.

Not a fan of what Liz did, but counter-argument, what she did was 100% legal. The aliens have ZERO rights. None. She technically didn't need their consent. Only Max had a problem with what she was doing-- from what I remember Michael and Iz didn't seem to care. Also, most of the samples came from Noah, not the Triplet. Not that it's a standard to aspire to, but Liz acted 1000% more humanely than the military with the alien refugees which was, once again, technically totally legal. She got her samples without hurting anyone and was able to test them without hurting either aliens or humans. She was trying to help people and was successful. I thought Max burning all her research was messed up personally. Liz and Kyle bent every rule in the book to save Max. They stole medical equipment that could save human patients. The least Max could have done is to give Liz a little time and latitude to work, and prove to him that she could share her research safely. Also, Liz' life-saving research was putting the Triplet in far less danger than Max's own reckless actions, including ROSA! And melting Flint's chest in the middle of a freaking fair. Max is hypocritical.